It's home to a wealth of information on dishes from around the world — all in videos produced by amateur, enthusiastic cooks.

It's home to a wealth of information on dishes from around the world — all in videos produced by amateur, enthusiastic cooks.

By Leah Koenig

Growing up, winter squash meant one of two things in my family: butternut or acorn.

Either way, they were halved, seeded and filled with a few cubes of salted butter and a spoonful of brown sugar before being baked in the oven, emerging steaming and tender with a browned, blistered top and syrupy melted butter puddled at the bottom. Not a bad way to eat your vegetables.

Two decades later I still enjoy squash this way, and I continue to crave butternut and acorn squash throughout the colder months. But among the many treasures the farmer's market has given shoppers is the panoply of squash varieties that help keep winter eating interesting.

Some of are pretty and dainty like the striped delicata, the Christmas ornament-shaped red kuri, and the brightly colored carnival. Others are gnarly, misshapen creatures – like the monstrous, blue-green hubbard and the awkwardly protruding turban – which belong in the pages of Where the Wild Things Are as much as on the dinner table.

Squash, which is a member of the cucurbit family along with melons and cucumbers, originally hails from the Americas – likely somewhere between Mexico and Guatemala. Today, squash has made its way all over the map of world cuisine, and making one's way through the ever-growing list of these winter fruits can be intimidating.

Each has its own personality and flavor (think of the super sweet and fleshy buttercup versus the stringy spaghetti), and confusingly, only some have edible skin. The good news is that nearly every variety tastes great the old-fashioned way: roasted and served with butter — and almost all of them have specific preparations that help their particular characteristics shine.

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